Tomorrow, Alexander Payne’s Downsizing hits theaters. The film follows Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), a mild-mannered guy in financial straits who decides with his wife (Kristen Wiig) to take advantage of new procedure and lifestyle where they shrink down to five-inches-tall, and because everything in their new world is smaller, their money goes further. When Aubrey bails after Paul’s had the procedure, he’s left adrift in his new, tiny world and looking for purpose. The film also stars Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, and Udo Kier.

I recently got to do a phone interview with Matt Damon for the film. During our conversation, we talked about how he got involved with the project, what it’s like to work with Alexander Payne, his hilarious cameo in Thor: Ragnarok, why it’s difficult for him to revisit Good Will Hunting, and more.

Check out the interview below. Downsizing opens tomorrow.

So how did you get involved with Downsizing?

MATT DAMON: Pretty easy answer. It was just Alexander Payne asked me if I wanted to do his movie. I'd really been wanting to work with him for a long time, and this was the first chance I had, and I wasn't going to pass it up.

How does working with Alexander Payne compare to other directors you've worked with?

DAMON: He's similar in a lot of ways to kind of the great directors that I've worked with, in that he's really solicitive of other people's opinions, and he doesn't have an ego about the work. He just really wants it to be as good as it can be.

But he's different in the sense that I was surprised at how meticulous he is. He doesn't shoot in coverage, by that I mean he doesn't shoot a lot of extraneous things and then decide later whether or not he needs them. He's very sure of himself and of the shots he needs to make. It's just that he does a lot of takes of each shot, which is, as an actor, it's great, because it's not a situation where you're ... If you do 50 takes of something, you don't begrudge the director. The shot is born to be in the movie. The director is just trying to get it exactly as he wants it. And that's a good reason to do a lot of shots.

When doing a lot of shots, do you feel that gives you the freedom to sort of try different things and try different approaches to a scene?

DAMON: Yeah. There's always freedom to kind of try stuff, and to kind of do stuff and be open to stuff that happens in the moment. Just because he has an idea of what he wants to bring in, it doesn't mean he tries to be overly controlling. It's just that he knows when he's got the shot once he gets it. That's good. It makes you feel like you're in the hands of somebody who really ... because he's got the movie in camera, you can feel that you're in the hands of a master director.

Is there something in particular you're looking for when you do science fiction when it comes to the subtext?

DAMON: No, not at all. It's really about the director. I'll kind of do anything if I want to work with the director. But sci-fi's always interesting because it's like ... I mean, this I would call more satire, but you can say a lot because you're kind of one step removed from being literal. Science fiction movies are all about today. They pretend to be about a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but really they're talking about the world we're living in.

What's the biggest challenge on a film where your character is only five inches tall?

DAMON: I mean, I think for us because size is relative, when we were in the small world everyone else is small, too. And the movie is very much about how people are trying to escape their problems by becoming smaller, but they in fact downsize their problems with them. So there's kind of no escaping ... our humanity is downsized as well. There's no escaping our problems and who we are.

Was there anything about this character that really jumped out at you in his journey?

DAMON: Yeah, I mean, he's a really good person, a decent person. He's very naïve. Christoph's character said to me, you know, "I like you, Paul. You're a nice guy. You're a little bit of a pathetic guy." He's a very lovable character in the sense that he's got a really good heart, but he doesn't know what he doesn't know, so the movie kind of follows him on this incredible journey while he really wakes up to the work around him and his own place in it, and he ends up at this really great place by the end of it.

It's funny, I saw this film at the Toronto Film Festival, and I think I saw, like, This and Suburbicon back-to-back, and it's weird because they're both sort of everyman characters who go in these radical directions as opposed to someone like Mark Watney, who's like a brilliant scientist. Did you sort of see an everyman quality here in your character? Like, someone more relatable?

DAMON: Yeah, I think that's what Alexander needed for this. I think Paul is kind of a cipher. He kind of pulls the audience in along on this journey. So, yeah, you have to feel relatable, compared to somebody like I played in George's movie who was, you know, that's obviously a much darker, kind of more twisted soul.

We just hit the 20th anniversary of Good Will Hunting. What do you think about when you look back on that movie?

DAMON: Oh, man, it's pretty full and fertile territory. I mean, we started writing it, Ben was 20 and I was 22, and it came out when he was 25 and I was 27. So it really dominated our 20s. Like, half a decade we spent just obsessing over bringing that movie to the screen. All of this creative energy we had wrapped up in it, and it became this incredibly positive experience, it completely changed the trajectory of our careers. It was this wonderful thing. And in 2003 Elliot Smith died, and I haven't watched it since then, just because I always thought it would be hard to hear this music along without thinking of that, and then to have Robin end up getting this horrific, degenerative brain disease, that obviously ... I mean, I can't imagine watching it right now. I mean, I'm sure I someday will. I want to show it to my kids. Then, now, finally with these revelations about Harvey.

It's tough. It's tough to reconcile those things, because the movie has such a profound place in my heart, and it's such an expression creatively of what Ben and I wanted to say at the time, and our own attempts to be heard as actors in this town that just doesn't listen to actors, and we were getting constantly rejected. It's just such a big part of us. It's a lot of these powerful things that are now in conflict kind of colliding with each other. It's tough. I guess it's bittersweet.

Shifting gears to something more recent, I guess it's probably safe to talk now about your cameo in Thor: Ragnarok. Have you always wanted to be involved with the Marvel movies? Or was this something about just taking on a fun role?

DAMON: No, no, no. Chris just called me up, and Taika called me up, and I'm friends with those guys. They pitched me the idea and I just thought it was hysterical, the idea of basically an intergalactic community theater actor kind of living out Tom Hiddleston's character's fantasy. I just thought it was just a great, funny bit, and very easy to do. Those guys were a lot of fun, and Taika runs a really fun set. It was a light lift for me.

Was Tom on set while you were doing that, and you kind of playing his character?

DAMON: Yeah, Tom was right there, and Chris was there, and we were all having a good laugh.

You've come close to directing a couple of films, but for one reason or another have decided that it wasn't the right time. Is directing something you still might want to pursue in the future?

DAMON: Definitely. Yeah, definitely. I just have to find the right thing, and the right timing, and it's all kind of got to come together. But it's something that I definitely want to do.

In terms of in preparing for it, have you talked to your fellow stars who have transitioned to directing, like Clooney, and the lessons they've learned?

DAMON: Sure. I've talked to George about it, and Ben. I mean, I talk to all the directors I work with. The good thing about not directing and acting in these movies is that I'm still learning quite a bit every time I work with one of these great directors, and watch them, and get a chance to henpeck them with questions for three months. So I feel like I'm building out my knowledge base and making progress even though I haven't actually done it yet.

You've been around for a long time with Good Will Hunting as the breakthrough. Do you see yourself as a veteran actor, or someone who's just still learning with every new movie?

DAMON: No, you definitely learn with every movie, which is the great thing about this career, is that it's not something that ... Each movie is different, each set of problems that you have to solve are different. I think that's the allure. You just keep trying to make the perfect movie, but you never really can. I'd have given up and done something else if it was something that you could just master and be done with.

What do you have coming up?

DAMON: Nothing right now. I haven't shot anything in the last year. I basically did five movies in a row. I did The Martian, and The Great Wall, Jason Bourne, Downsizing, and Suburbicon. That was like two and a half years, a little more of work, and so I just kind of shut it down after that. So I haven't shot anything in a little over a year, and I'm not slated to shoot anything yet. I've got a couple of things ... I really want to do this RFK biopic, but other than that I've just been kind of focused on being home right now.